Hi all! Wow, it has definitely been quite some time since my last blog post and a lot of life has happened between then and now. It was a great practice in consciously stepping away from some activities/practices in favor of others, but I have been wanting to share some of the events of the past few months to shed some light on experiences that Martin and I have had, as well as start to share what is coming ahead for us both.

In short, we’ve continued to have a year rooted in partnership and growth together. We’re both fortunate to still have and enjoy our jobs and we’ve crossed a few major milestones together! While there is a ton continuing to rage on in the world around us, this year has been such a reminder that having each other is the best gift and we can truly weather any storm when we put our relationship first.

With that said…

I’M A MRS!!!!!!!!!

We were able to pivot our 100 person event on the Oregon Coast to just immediate family and our officiant in Seattle. We took every precaution available to us to ensure that we mitigated covid risk which allowed my grandparents to be able to attend in person. It ended up being truly the most incredible day — from the little moments we got to share together, to intimate conversations with every guest, to completely lucking out with the weather. Seattle had thunderstorms forecasted for the day of and we ended up without a drop of rain everywhere we went to take photos.

My family expanded. Having our home full of loved ones was more lovely than I can put into words. And most importantly, Martin and I walked out of the end of the day married and ready to conquer the rest of our lives together.

Backing up a few paces, we were able to buy and move into our first house this past July… Great timing since we now know we are going to both continue working remote through at least June 2021. I personally miss my office, my team members and colleagues greatly, but I’m so appreciative of the ability to stay safe and carry on fairly “business as usual” in our careers.

We’ve definitely done one round of “nesting” to prepare to host our guests who were here for the wedding (and how fun it was to be able to have the space to properly host them!!!) but this next round is where the real work begins. We have several larger housing projects on the horizon (namely changing our countertops and replacing our roof); but also some fun goals like finishing outfitting our basement gym (it has been a dream of Martin’s to have an in-home squat rack for years now), and put all of our kitchen gifts to good use (we were completely spoiled by friends and family with appliances, tools and cookbooks!) I’m definitely planning on getting back to sharing some of our weekly meal plans and “best of” recipes — Instagram for sure will have it all!

On the food front, I can say we enjoyed an incredible summer of breaking in our grill and I’ve been so pleased with the overall balance of food I have found to be able to nourish me, but also embrace the pleasure and soul that sharing a good meal has to offer. Martin and I absolutely love our time in the kitchen together and 2020 has really taught us that we’re quite good at in. This in many ways has been one of the best ways I have been healing my relationship with food — sharing the experience of it so closely with the person I love the most. It has really changed my perspective and made me make some adjustments to my diet that leave me feeling abundant rather than scarce.

Last but not least for now on the workout front, I completed back to back Danielle Pascente workout programs from late July - just after our wedding week! I’ve really been trying to take advantage of living next to such an incredible park in Seattle that truly inspires me to want to work out like an athlete. We even picked up a soccer ball and re-gripped our tennis rackets which are both fun and sweaty activities!

I cannot recommend Danielle’s programs enough. For me, the formatting and intensity was just what I was looking for and the community during the Strong in Fall Challenge honestly blew me away week after week. It was so amazing to see women supporting each other in just stacking goals and taking on some of the hardest workouts most of us had ever done. All with some humor and heart. It was honestly infectious. Workout FOMO was real if you had to miss a day for any reason!

All of this lead to me honestly feeling more confident than I could ever have imagined feeling on my wedding day. I remember setting out at the beginning of January to get some habits back on track and I found that naturally as the world started to shift and move, we all turned indoors, that I was able to let go of some patterning and come back to what really served me. It has been a lot of listening to intention and also coming back to the wisdom that I have gained on the health journey for years now, with some more life experience to make the decisions that much more informed.

Four Corners Health is going to grow in 2021 on the back of all of this experience.

(Does anyone else feel like they aged 6 years in this year alone?!)

I’ve been teaching yoga over Zoom all of quarantine until I took a break this month to focus on wedding details and newlywed bliss but in looking back, it’s pretty incredible to see how digital connection was able to serve so many this year. I’ve supported my company and colleagues by providing yoga as an outlet and hope that the program I have created continues to grow and gets rolled into larger initiatives around health and wellness that are now getting their fair share of attention. This has been the year of finally speaking truths about what we need in order to thrive. To wake up and admit to those we love and trust that we were moving too quickly, without really stopping to breathe. We let the pace of life get the best of us and distract from the core values that matter — our health being one of them.

I’m looking forward to picking back up my nutrition coaching offerings in the next year as well. While I took a break from taking on clients this year, I have had enough conversations to learn that there are still many conversations that I want to help women dive into de-bunking nutrition myths, calling out diet culture, and coming up with an approach based on fundamentals that will actually work for their unique lives.

More to come - but just wanted to share a snapshot of where we have been!